KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica government has reaffirmed its commitment to removing King Charles 111 as the country’s head of State, as it defends the ongoing efforts to make Jamaica a republic.
Marlene Malahoo Forte (File Photo)Legal and Constitutional Affairs Minister, Marlene Malahoo Forte, said the tabling of the Constitution (Amendment) (Republic) Bill, 2024 “is the farthest any Government has gone towards Jamaica becoming a republic”.
The Bill, tabled in Parliament in December 2024, proposes to replace the British monarch with a Jamaican president as the ceremonial head of State.
In a statement, the minister acknowledged that the Bill will not be debated and voted on before the next general election, due later this year with the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) seeking a third consecutive term in office. The main challenge will come from the main opposition People’s National Party (PNP).
“Mandatory timelines are set out in the constitution itself which dictate the pace at which you move after a Bill to alter the constitution — in the way we are seeking to do — is tabled in the House of Representatives,” Malahoo Forte said in the statement.
“Before you can commence the debate on the Bill you have a three-month waiting period, and after the debate is done you have another three-month waiting period before you can take the vote. These waiting periods amount to half a year,” she added.
Malahoo Forte said that when additional parliamentary and administrative procedures are factored in, the overall process extends further.
“The Bill must also be sent to the Senate to be debated and passed. Not less than two, nor more than six months after both Houses of Parliament pass the Bill, the people who vote in elections have to approve the Bill. The process, by design, is slow and deliberative,” Malahoo Forte said.
But she said despite these delays she believes that the Andrew Holness government could have been further ahead in the process if there was more cooperation from the parliamentary Opposition throughout the process.
“Despite the notable progress, we recognize that more could have been achieved through a different, more unified approach in the national interest, which might have facilitated the Bill’s passage and allowed the second phase of work to commence during the life of this Parliament,” she said.
Malahoo Forte said that following the tabling of the Bill in December 2024 a joint select committee of Parliament began its review in January 2025. However, Opposition members of the committee, including Opposition Leader, Mark Golding, withdrew after the first meeting, citing disagreement over the decision to defer the issue of Jamaica’s final court to a later phase of the reform process.
Last month, Golding addressing a PNP meeting criticized the government’s handling of the reform process, describing it as problematic and biased.
“It was a totally misguided process from day one. They appointed a committee but they didn’t really include the representatives of the civil society and other groups who should have been at the table — they selected who they wanted to be there,” he said then , promising that a PNP administration will restart the process to ensure that it is done fairly and without bias
Golding reaffirmed the PNP’s commitment to Jamaica becoming a republic but said that this must include adopting the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as the country’s final court of appeal.
